Specular map problem

[kitcat81]

Can someine help me please , I almost gave up. I can`t find a way to save the specular map to make it work the same as vanilla maps. I have a vanilla specular map that works just fiune but after resaving it becomes broken.. It does not matter if I change it or not, saving it as dxt5,dxt1,dxt3 and 3dc end up with the same result. The object becomes very shiny like polished plastic even though it was not shiny at all. I use photoshop CC and a plugin for dds. When I open my resaved map in photoshop it looks the same as vanilla maps, I can`t find any difference. But it just won`t work as it should.

[kitcat81]

It seems that I managed to make it work by adding a black layer (overlay style), not sure that it`s the right way, but in-game it seem to look the same as it was with the vanilla map. Found a few topics on another site saying that it`s not enough and that nvidia dds plugin swaps red and green chanels. Not sure that it is the correct info. The described way of solving it was so complicated that I decided to go my way and just swapped channels in photoshop. They looked very similar, one of them was just a little bit lighter. I created 2 textures , one with swapped Green -Red and another one left without changes but both look quite similar to the vanilla texture in game...Having the same glossy areas...Maybe I need to look better to notice the difference.

Saved as 3dc.

 

Edit: looked at it a bit more when the sun was bright, it`s just not the best map to notice the difference as it`s all in dirty spots t and it`s hard to guess what in that mess is supposed to be shiny. Seems that the info was correct and red-green channels get swapped when you save it with the Nvidia photoshop plugin.

The one where I swapped channels before saving looked the same as the vanilla texture, The second one had some differences that are hard to notice, but they do exist.

 

Anyway, I`m still looking for some help with getting info about this.

This is actually a first time I`m making normal and specular maps that are not flat.

Edited December 31, 2016 by kitcat81

[Perraine]

I'm afraid I can't help to much, as I don't have PS and don't use the .dds plugins.

 

I do almost all of my texturing in Paint.net and save my files in the same DXT5 format that Skyrim used. FO4 uses them quite happily, so it's just a matter of manually "tweaking" the red and green values through trial and error to get the required result.

[kitcat81]

I'm afraid I can't help to much, as I don't have PS and don't use the .dds plugins.

 

I do almost all of my texturing in Paint.net and save my files in the same DXT5 format that Skyrim used. FO4 uses them quite happily, so it's just a matter of manually "tweaking" the red and green values through trial and error to get the required result.

This is very useful info for me, thank you a lot. I just don`t even know how this map should normally look as I have not created textures in other games and have not seen them. I have seen only vanilla FO4 textures that all look blue or purple. Should it be greyscale to save as DXT?

[Deleted15964729User]

If you got Intel plugin save using the same compression as Normal maps.

FO4 specular maps FO4 have no data in the blue channel so ignore that. Green channel is glossiness and Red is specular.

 

        case "Specular":
            SetMapType("s");	
            var combined = GetMergedMap();		
			var fill = fillBlack();
            var channels = combined.channels;			
				StoreMapInChannel(combined , "Specular", channels, 0);			
				StoreMapInChannel(combined, "Gloss", channels, 1);	
				StoreMapInChannel(combined, fill, channels, 2);	


		case "Normal":
                case "Bump":
			SetMapType("n");
            var normal = GetBumpedNormal(mapType);
				FlipY();
            return normal;

 

 

 

Check this link for info and what tools to use: http://www.stuyk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3

 

 

[kitcat81]

If you got Intel plugin save using the same compression as Normal maps.

 

FO4 specular maps FO4 have no data in the blue channel so ignore that. Green channel is glossiness and Red is specular.

 

 

 

        case "Specular":
            SetMapType("s");	
            var combined = GetMergedMap();		
			var fill = fillBlack();
            var channels = combined.channels;			
				StoreMapInChannel(combined , "Specular", channels, 0);			
				StoreMapInChannel(combined, "Gloss", channels, 1);	
				StoreMapInChannel(combined, fill, channels, 2);	


		case "Normal":
                case "Bump":
			SetMapType("n");
            var normal = GetBumpedNormal(mapType);
				FlipY();
            return normal;

 

 

 

Check this link for info and what tools to use: http://www.stuyk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3

 

 

Thank you very much for this info. Stuyk tutorials are really good. I don`t have Intel plugin, I have nvidial plugin for dds. Wanted to install the Intel plugin too but saw somethere a complaint that it broke the nvidia plugin and the whole photoshop. I`m not sure that it will all work with the latest Photoshop. I already regret that I chose CC. CS 6 has more plugins for it, but as I got new PC and new Windows I wanted to get the latest version. I also tried a plugin for normal maps but it just crashed my photoshop. Using photoshop built in filter for it now.

 

 

And I tried to understand what is going wrong with my plugin and I think I figured it out. It saves files just fine and they work in game. The problem appears when opening a vanilla specular or normal maps. Normals look washed out, and specular maps get swapped channels. Adding a black layer set as overlay and swapping channells back before saving seem to fix the problem.

[Perraine]

You can also use Gimp 2.0 with a .dds plugin. It happily saves the files in the default Ati 3DC format that FO4 uses for Normal and Specular maps, plus it can "decode" them without messing up the channels. If you use Gimp, remember to "export" the file, not save, in the desired format.

 

Or you can just manually edit the red and green values like I do. bright red will make things look a bit "flat", with a localized gloss, good for metallic objects /areas.. Bright Green will make things a very diffuse shiny like Lycra or silk, good for certain "modern" fabrics, and Bright Yellow (combination of red and green) will make things VERY glossy and shiny like Tanned Leather, Vinyl and Plastics. Below 128 color intensity will be a very subtle effect, above 128 (up to 255) will be progressively more and more "shiny.

[kitcat81]

You can also use Gimp 2.0 with a .dds plugin. It happily saves the files in the default Ati 3DC format that FO4 uses for Normal and Specular maps, plus it can "decode" them without messing up the channels. If you use Gimp, remember to "export" the file, not save, in the desired format.

 

Or you can just manually edit the red and green values like I do. bright red will make things look a bit "flat", with a localized gloss, good for metallic objects /areas.. Bright Green will make things a very diffuse shiny like Lycra or silk, good for certain "modern" fabrics, and Bright Yellow (combination of red and green) will make things VERY glossy and shiny like Tanned Leather, Vinyl and Plastics. Below 128 color intensity will be a very subtle effect, above 128 (up to 255) will be progressively more and more "shiny.

Thank you again, and Happy New Year , It has started here :D I have Gimp, installed it just a week ago in a hope to make the DDS plugin work with it, I actually started with it as it had more tutorials. But for some reason it refuses to install the plugin. I will give it another try . Gimp is quite difficult to use after Photoshop, I used Photoshop for many years , got a tablet for it, but it might be useful to learn something new on case Photoshop fails to do something else I need. It saves DXT5 just fine though. And those colour values are very useful, this is what I need most of all as I`m a total nebiew in games textures.

[Perraine]

If you open the mesh in Nifskope, it will update the textures in real time as you edit and then save them. (sometimes you have to use the "Update Tangent Space" function, or reload the mesh)

 

Note that Nifskope does tend to show the meshes "slightly" less shiny than they will be in game, because Nifskope only has a small number of "lights" where as in game there can be many very strong lights, so use a bit of trial and error to adjust the "glossiness" while viewing in Nifskope, then pull it back just a tiny little bit, for in game use.

 

Good luck :)

[Deleted15964729User]

Like Perraine mentions always export or save as copy depending on how the options looks in each program (also for photoshop). Also remember the file exported/saved will be the flattened image not how you view the layers in the program. This is especially important when you work with alpha. If you save with BC7 the DX10 header will stay with the file regardless of conversions, at least in my experience so make sure to have a "clean" file you export to dds. DDS are heavily compressed, it's never a good policy to edit such formats no matter the media type (ie. you don't make edits to a mp3 when you have a uncompressed source wav).

 

Also you can use both plugins but you need to make sure to use "open as" or Nvidia will always open the files and errors can happen from that. In fact you should always "open as" and make sure you open with the plugin/format you intend to save with.

 

Edit: Don't be afraid the intel plugin breaks the Nvidia one. It's just a zip containing a 8bf-plugin and a few jsx-scripts. It doesn't add any new paths or things like that. Should you have problems just remove these files and you will be good again.

 

PS. I think you can get the correct maps when opening with the Nvidia-plugin by simply just inverting the file (Ctrl+I).